Western facing must-win contest

Spencer Patterson

Friday, Sept. 17, 1999 | 9:57 a.m.

When the 1999 prep football season opened last month, tonight's week four matchup between Cheyenne and Western loomed as a potential battle for Sunset Division superiority.

The Desert Shields were coming off an 11-1 campaign that saw them win the division and finish second in the Southern Zone, while the Warriors returned 16 starters from a team that made last year's zone semifinals.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the "game of the year." While Cheyenne has plowed through its first two conference contests without incident, Western has put itself behind the eight-ball, losing two of its three league games.

And Warriors coach Rich Stevens knows full well that a loss tonight at Cheyenne would drop his team to 1-3 in division and put a postseason berth all but out of reach.

"I've been telling (the players) how crucial it is," Stevens said. "We're sitting pretty if we win this one, but if we lose, we've really got problems."

For his part, Desert Shields coach George Perry said he's expecting to see a hungry Western club tonight, and he thinks his players are ready for the challenge.

"I guarantee you they'll fight us (Friday)," Perry said. "Everybody seems to play their best game against us, so we don't look past anybody. We're trying to win a state championship, and the way you do that is to win all the league games."

After opening with an unexpected nonconference loss to Eldorado in week one, the Desert Shields have re-focused their attention on their league slate -- blowing out Palo Verde and Bonanza by 33 and 25 points, respectively.

"We've been more consistent on offense, and we've been putting teams away early," Perry said. "We've been able to rest a lot of the kids, which is important for us since we only have about 35 players."

The Warriors, on the other hand, have struggled mightily on offense, losing a whopping 21 fumbles in their three games thus far -- a five-point victory over winless Mojave and losses to Durango and Palo Verde at home.

"Even with all those fumbles, we've been in every game, so our defense has been doing a great job," Stevens said. "We're just trying to right the ship."

Tonight's game will also feature a matchup between two of the state's top lineman: Cheyenne's Lynn McGruder and Western's Marcus Levi, a pair of highly-recruited seniors.

Also on tap tonight in the Sunset Division, undefeated Cimarron-Memorial travels to Palo Verde and Mojave plays at Clark. Durango will go out of conference for a home game against Desert Pines.

In Sunrise Division play, Chaparral entertains Silverado for the right to go 2-0 in conference, Eldorado travels to Valley, Green Valley plays at Las Vegas and Rancho hosts Basic.

Foothill will look for its first win of the season at Boulder City, while Centennial will do likewise at home against Moapa Valley. In Class 2A action, The Meadows will host Carlin.

Saturday night, Bishop Gorman will try to run its conference record to 3-0 when it hosts winless Bonanza. PREP FOOTBALL